Merry Christmas #1

Since all of my roommates are leaving for their hometowns in the next few days, we decided to celebrate Christmas early.

Can you guess whether this is a photo of:
a) very large presents, or
b) an itty bitty Christmas tree?

I suppose the fact that it's sitting on the kitchen counter is probably a pretty big hint, or the fact that the Santa Claus tree-topper is almost as big as the tree itself...

Gift summaries:

Andrea, our household musician, got an oh-so-stylish music note hat and a music note espresso cup. Pier, our household chef, got an ethnic foods cookbook so he can expand his current repertoire of "all italian, all the time."

Added bonus: a photo of the guys looking goofy. :)

Marta and I went in together on Giada's gift - a three piece "tea mug" as I have chosen to call it, which is a large mug with a lid and uh, steeper? Is that even a word? Giada gave scarves to both me and Marta and somehow managed to find the perfect scarf for each of us. I suppose it must be in her blood, she has such a fine-tuned sense of fashion that she can instantly judge other people's fashion tastes as well... I gave Marta a tutu skirt because she's cool enough to pull off a tutu, and Marta gave me a copy of "O Principezinho."

There are two amazing things about this photo:

1. My little prince is now tri-lingual.
2. My new scarf also doubles as a beautiful backdrop. Brilliant. :)

Our mini-Christmas wasn't exactly traditional, but it was wonderful. I'll be sure to let you all know how things go on the 24th, but it has quite a lot to live up to!

As Meninas Estão Comendo uma Maçã

My lovely roommate Marta wrote a blog (here) that explains it all in three languages, bless her polyglottal soul... but I'm not quite that impressive so I'll just explain it in one.

I'm going to visit Marta in Portugal! Bought my tickets yesterday and on January 5th, Ryan and I will be flying with the appropriately-named Ryanair to Porto, Portugal where we'll fare un giro with Marta for a few days, making our way down to Lisbon!


This is wonderful. It's also very convenient because I recently acquired (don't ask how - I'll plead the 5th) a copy of Rosetta Stone. That's right, I'm learning Portuguese, as you can see by the fancy Portuguese title of this blog: The girls are eating an apple. Why did I choose this phrase instead of something more relevant to the situation? For two important reasons:

1. It gets stuck in Marta's head when she overhears me repeating it 200 times a day.
2. It's the longest sentence I know in Portuguese.
(and one of the very few complete sentences...)

So, I'm off to visit my beautiful roomie and who knows, maybe I'll get the chance to practice my new language... let's just hope that there are lots of girls eating an apple in Portugal!

Bologna by Night

I've had a lot of free time lately. I only have one class which meets 6 hours a week. I babysit for another 6 hours a week, which leaves about 156 hours for doing whatever I feel like doing. Of course, since the weather's been pretty dreary lately, what I feel like doing usually consists of sitting in my bed sipping hot tea while reading or watching a movie. As great as this sounds, I've been feeling really lazy and unproductive. Tonight, after dinner, I was overcome by the need to get out. I didn't leave the house all day so I decided that a little fresh air would be good for me. I bundled up in more layers than would ever be necessary in California, and went for a long walk around Bologna.

There was hardly anyone out tonight, probably because it was 11pm and freezing, but I appreciated the quiet (very, very rare in this city). It gave me a chance to think, take a few pictures and just enjoy being alone for a little while.

I figured I'd use this as an opportunity to show everyone around a little... so, here's a very brief photo tour of Bologna at 11pm on a Sunday night. Enjoy :)

This is Piazza Santo Stefano. It's usually filled with students, but not tonight. During the day it's a great place to meet up with friends and have lunch, and at night it's often filled with people drinking/smoking/dancing/singing.

* * * * *

This is the piazza and fountain of Neptune, which is one of my favorite places to people-watch. It's right at the edge of Piazza Maggiore, so there's almost always something interesting going on. It was a great spot to rest during the summer because there was always a cool mist from the fountain. Now, as you can see, there's a huge Christmas tree in the piazza!

* * * * *

Via Rizzoli is one of the major streets in the city center - at the end you can see Torre Asinelli, one of the two main towers of Bologna. Torre Garisenda is the other, which can't be seen in the photo. Asinelli is open to the public, and I'm sure the view is amazing - but legend has it that climbing the tower before graduating brings extremely bad luck. Italians are very superstitious and I think it's rubbed off because I certainly won't be going up there...

* * * * *

Some of Bologna's Christmas decorations! Just about the entire city is decorated with Christmas lights right now. It's really beautiful but I can't help but wonder how much energy that take... or how much it costs! They do shut all the lights off at 1 or 2am though, so that's something.

The last photo is of my street! I actually took it while standing on the doorstep of my apartment building. Home sweet home. :)

Krampus

This weekend was weird. Strange. Bizarre. Odd. Freaky.

There really just aren't any words that adequately sum up what happened this weekend, so I guess I'll just start from the beginning and let everyone decide for themselves.

A few months ago, Giada told me about an annual Christmas festival which takes place in her hometown on the first weekend of December, and invited me and Marta to come with her. So on Thursday, we all packed up our bags and headed to Giada's city, Tolmezzo. It's a beautiful and tiny town surrounded by mountains, so far north that it's practically in Austria. It felt like an entirely different world, even though it was only 4 hours from Bologna by train!
Giada's boyfriend Massi picked us up at the train station and we all went to dinner at a local place called "Bef'ed." This restaurant was completely crazy, not like anything I've ever seen in Italy or in the United States. First of all, they don't believe in silverware - see, it's part of the fun! We were served shelled peanuts as an appetizer, and by "served" I mean that there was a giant pile of them on the table. The floor of the restaurant was completely covered in peanut shells, because this too is part of the fun. I'm not sure what it was about this place, but it felt awfully.... American. Anyway, Massi and Giada ordered for Marta and I, because apparently there's only one "right" choice when eating at Bef'ed: the polletto - practically an entire chicken.
Call me crazy, but I've never really considered an entire roasted chicken "finger food". I've also been a vegetarian for a pretty decent-sized chunk of my life, so this was a little bit... intense. To the incredible delight/disbelief of my carnivorous friends, I proclaimed "grazie pollo, per avermi dato la tua vita!" (thank you chicken, for giving me your life - yeah okay, a little weird but give me a break, I was about to eat an entire bird), and then I overcame my vegetarian doubts and devoured that thing like a good little carnivore. As proof, here's a picture of me that I doubt any of you ever expected to see:

Yes, I believe I am using my teeth and hands to rip a small animal's wing away from its torso. Definitely a new experience for me... and a tasty one!

As if this restaurant weren't strange enough, on the way out I saw what I thought was a gumball machine. I quickly realized, though, that these were no gumballs. No no, my friends, these were sexy panties.
That's right. Located above Winnie the Pooh and directly to the left of Hello Kitty, a beautiful (and tasteful) selection of thongs! I mean I guess it's not that much different than a gumball machine. Multi-colored, probably edible....

As you can see, my first impression of Tolmezzo was an interesting one. Trust me though, when I went to bed that night I had no idea what was still to come.

The next morning, I woke up to Marta's excited announcement: SNOW! I haven't seen that much snow since I lived in Michigan. The trees and houses were covered, cars were buried, everything was sparkling white and beautiful and cold. Luckily, Giada made sure I was equipped with heavy-duty, rainbow-colored mittens.

Armed with our mittens, we went to Giada's grandparents' house where they served us a huge lunch. I realize that most of my blogs so far have had to do with food, so I'll skip the details and just say that I was, once again, amazed at how much food my relatively small body can consume. When we had all recovered from the food coma, we set out for the festival. This is where things got really, really weird.

The Krampus festival is a traditional Austrian celebration in which the men of the town dress up as horrible demons and chase small children through the streets, beating them with whips.

No, no I'm not kidding.
It started with a "parade", although I hate to call it that because I like parades. They're usually pretty fun, you know - floats, beauty queens in convertibles, high school marching bands. This, on the other hand, was terrifying. The demons entered the town, waving torches and rattling their chains (yeah, some of the scary demons were chained to a giant wagon which was being driven by another scary demon). They were all screaming, growling and making all kinds of other demonic noises as they marched past, whipping anyone (me) who happened to be standing too close. This was not a joke or a friendly tap, people. I still have a bruise from the demon's whip, which is a sentence I hoped I'd never have to say.

When the demons reached the center of the town, they gathered in what was essentially a satanic ritual in which they were "set free" by San Nicolo. Yeah, Santa. Santa Claus unleashed hordes of demons on this town, giving them permission to run free and whip innocent young children and Americans. It was unbelievable. At one point, I watched a large hairy demon chase after a small girl, dive through the air, tackling the girl to the ground where he ripped off her hat and started rubbing her face in the snow. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of this, as I was too busy dealing with my own evil demon attack.

Here's a description of a Krampus festival, taken directly from wikipedia:

"Today, Schladming, a town in Styria, over 1200 "Krampus" gather from all over Austria wearing goat-hair costumes and carved masks, carrying bundles of sticks used as switches, and swinging cowbells to warn of their approach. They are typically young men in their teens and early twenties and are generally intoxicated. They roam the streets of this typically quiet town and hit people with their switches. It is not considered wise for young women to go out on this night, as they are popular targets."

Mm hmm. Interesting. I especially like that last part.

The second portion of the festival took place at the bottom of a forested hill. The demons came down through the trees, clanking their cowbells as usual, shooting off flares, hissing and screaming. The forest was illuminated with red lanterns and several small fires, and there was an eerie amount of fog which I told myself came from fog machines. There was also terrifying music playing. It was one of the scariest experiences of my life, watching the demons slowly descending towards me through the fog... When they reached the bottom of the hill they engaged in yet another satanic ritual and then (of course) they started whipping children again.
The funny thing is, people bring their children to this festival every single year! They want their children to be whipped by demons! I actually saw parents laughing hysterically as they tried to get the perfect photo of their child, being held upside-down and shaken by an evil demon. The whole town goes nuts for this festival, and people spend months preparing their masks and costumes. There were even tiny models of Krampus monsters:

(In case you're confused, the small child is kneeling in prayer as he is being surrounded by Krampus demons.)

Hopefully now you all understand why the word "weird" just doesn't cover it!

Luckily, we all escaped relatively unharmed. One of the demons actually posed for a photo with me before whipping me in the legs (never trust a demon, especially if he has Santa's permission to whip you!)...

The rest of the weekend was much less demon-infested and I had a great time with Marta and Giada, playing in the snow and hanging out with Giada's family. I'm so lucky to have such wonderful roommates... I honestly can't think of anyone I'd rather be chased by demons with.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sometimes writing these blogs is easy, I just start writing and then after a while I realize that I've probably written enough to bore my readers into a state of numb confusion... and voila!

Other times, it's harder... I don't know, the words just don't come to me as easily as they sometimes do. That's what happened when I was trying to write my "Happy Thanksgiving" blog on Thursday. Maybe it was hard because the holiday left me in such a daze that I wasn't sure how to describe how I was feeling about everything. Maybe it was because I'd had an exam that day and had used up all of my brainpower. Maybe it was because I'd eaten too much and my brain couldn't function because my body was focusing all of its energy on digestion. Or maybe, and this is a very definite possibility, it was because I was trying to think and write coherently at 3:00AM after a very, very long day.

Whatever the reason, I didn't manage to write a blog on Thanksgiving. Sorry about that. Let's just pretend that I was confused by the time change. Hey, it's plausible - you try switching continents!

I woke up on Thursday feeling surprisingly content, even though I couldn't escape the burden of the knowledge that I was away from my family on Thanksgiving - my favorite holiday precisely because it brings us all together. I lay in bed for a while thinking about my situation and the more I thought about it, the more I realized just how much I am thankful for.

Of course, I'm thankful for the opportunity that I've been given - to live in this beautiful country for a year, meet incredible people and have amazing experiences that I'll remember for the rest of my life. I'm thankful for my family and friends back home who will always be there for me, even if I do live on the other side of the world. I'm thankful for my cozy apartment and my roommates, for the shoes on my feet and my incredibly warm scarf. I'm thankful for the snow here and for the tasty roasted chestnuts that I can buy from the street vendors on my way to class.

It's so much more than just than being thankful for what I have, though. I'm thankful for every experience I've had, for the lessons that I've learned and from the trials I've overcome. On days like Thanksgiving I miss my brother so much that it hurts, but I think of my family and of how strong they are, and I'm incredibly thankful for how close we have become. Being here, so far away from them has made me realize just how strong our ties are - that I can feel so close to them even though I haven't seen them in months.

I'm thankful for my friends here in Bologna, and for the study center which organized the incredible Thanksgiving feast in Padova. As it turns out, Italians suck at cooking Thanksgiving food... but hey, it was hilarious trying to guess what was actually in the strange dish they called "stuffing" or which body parts of the turkey we were being served. Was it even turkey? We'll never know.
The dinner, although perhaps not as satisfying as my mom's collection of traditional recipes back home, brought all of us Americans together to celebrate what we have to be thankful for here in Italy... which, among other things, is a group of wonderful friends that we can feel at home with during the holidays. Also, it's a group of friends who makes incredible desserts which make up for the Italians' lack of Thanksgiving savvy. The potluck portion of the dinner was amazing, with dozens of desserts. Chocolate cake, apple pie, banana bread, cookies, mmmmmmmm it was delicious. Yes, I'm definitely thankful for dessert.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving back home - I would really love to hear about it so leave me a comment or write me an e-mail! Tell me what you're thankful for :)

2 Degrees in Bologna...

It is officially freezing. Actually, it's 2 degrees celsius which is still technically above freezing. However, the windows in my house are frozen, which leads me to believe otherwise.

Brrrrr.

The weather here has definitely taken a turn for the worst, which is one of the reasons that I haven't blogged in a while. I just haven't really done anything. I've been curled up inside studying for exams, so I haven't been taking many pictures or traveling much at all. Maybe I'll be able to scrounge up a few interesting experiences to fill a blog, let's see...

First of all, I am officially a nanny. (Or as Italians say, a dada.) I have two very small new friends, Carlo (3) and Giorgia (7). I meet with them 2-3 times a week to "teach English" which usually consists of playing with Carlo's toy cars or watching "High School Musical 3" with Giorgia. It's not a fun job, but somebody's got to do it! An added bonus is the fact that the family has a winter vacation home in Cortina. Where's Cortina? Here's a picture, courtesy of Google:
Simona, the kids' mother, told me that if I come with them for a weekend and speak English with the family, she'll pay me 60 euro per day and "of course" pay for all my food and activities (for example, skiing and excessive cocoa-drinking). As I said, definitely not a fun job.

On a less cocoa-filled note, I took my first exam last week in Applied Linguistics. The first part was written - the prova scritta. It consisted of 5 questions which were painfully broad... one of the questions was literally "Write about something that you find important." I was tempted to write about mexican food (I miss it, alright? My diet here is severely lacking spiciness!) but I figured my professor might not find it as amusing as I would. After 30 minutes of writing she said that we only had 30 minutes remaining on the exam. I found this a bit surprising... see, I was expecting two hours because our professor had said "you will have two hours." Go figure. I only managed to finish 3 of the 5 essay questions by the time she took my paper. I'm not sure why she cut us off early - I think she probably had a meeting or something, most likely with the devil. (Okay, maybe not, but it was still a rude thing to do.)

A week after the written portion of the exam, I went back for the oral portion. Luckily, my professor allowed me to orally discuss the questions that I'd left blank on the written test. It was pretty terrifying, discussing linguistic theories in Italian... especially because there were other Italian students in the hall, just watching me! At first I was extremely nervous and the professor said that I could explain in English if I wanted, but I said no. I felt a little more confident after that, and at the end I received a 28 on the exam. The maximum score is 30, so I'm not complaining!

In addition to doing well on my exam, I had another wonderful surprise last week! Someone rang the buzzer at our building about 10 days ago and I answered "chi è?" like I always do.... but instead of hearing garbled Italian on the other end of the line, I heard "ummmmm.... hi, is Pierluca there?" and my heart lept for joy - Americans!!!!

Kevin and Jeff, to be precise. Pierluca met them when he was visiting a friend in California, and they stayd with us for over a week. A few days after they arrived, my friend Allison (the girl I stayed with in Dublin) came to stay with us as well and for the first time in the history of my apartment, the Americans outnumbered the Italians! Yesss! It was nice living with people who don't find me completely bizarre, and it actually really helped with my homesickness. It was almost like being back home! On one of their first nights here, we ordered pizza, drank beer and watched James Bond. I'm just not sure there's any better combination in the world.

We also made mexican food... not once, but twice.

It really was a beautiful week.

Si, possiamo!

I was riding my bike home yesterday morning, crossing Piazza Maggiore at 7:00 along with the first rays of sunlight, and it hit me - President Barack Obama. I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry, so I did both. I probably looked like a crazy person, racing through the piazza, letting out a whoop of joy as tears streamed down my face. (This is a picture that Leslie took of me before Obama took the election - so imagine me looking more or less like this, but much more disheveled after having stayed up all night.)
As much as I would have loved to be in the United States for this election, it was incredible to see the amount of support that Italians have for Obama. We were all crowded into the public library, hundreds of us, watching CNN on big screens, cheering and shouting "Si, possiamo! Yes we can!" I don't think there was a single person in the room who didn't support Obama. Most of the people there were Italian, and the few Americans were easily identified by our facepaint, which attracted a lot of attention.

When I say that we attracted attention, I mean it - I was interviewed on the local tv station Rai 3, and we were photographed several times. This photo of my friend Molly and I was printed in the Bologna-based newspaper Il Resto del Carlino! You can tell by our concerned expressions that it was still early in the evening...
Unfortunately I wasn't able to post the clip of me that was shown on television, but it was extremely short so you're not missing out too much.

At 3:30AM, when the library closed, I went to a friend's house and curled up on the couch with three of my friends to watch the rest of the election unfold. We were all exhausted - that is, until CNN projected Obama as the winner of the election, at which point we were no longer tired. At first we were ecstatic, and then speechless as we watched it all... watched McCain's extremely graceful concession speech, watched thousands and thousands of people in Chicago screaming "Yes, we can!" in celebration of Obama's victory, watched Martin Luther King's gospel church singing their hearts out, watched Rev. Jesse Jackson weeping in the crowd, watched Obama accept his victory in one of the most touching and humble speeches that I have ever seen delivered by a politician... it was beautiful. (It was also hilarious, because we were watching the speech live on CNN.com, but also dubbed in Italian on TV...)

I have never been so proud to be an American, so inspired by a president or so hopeful for the future. Yes we can! Si, possiamo!

Ahh, so exciting. Still hasn't sunk in completely, I think...

Salone del Gusto 2008

On Thursday morning at approximately 5:00AM, I should have been sleeping. Instead, I was groggily dragging myself to the train station to catch an early morning train to Torino or as we english-speakers like to call it, Turin. Now, my body doesn't entirely function at this hour, so the journey to the train station was definitely an interesting one. Dragging my duffel bag and sleeping bag, I think I bore an uncanny resemblance to Quasimodo.

Why on earth would I wreak such havoc on my sleep-loving body? Two words - food festival.

A few months ago in Berkeley, my Italian teacher told me that I had to choose just one thing to do while in Italy, it should be to attend the Salone del Gusto, an international Slow Food festival which takes place every two years in Torino.

Now, I'm not sure I've ever heard two words which combined to form such a beautiful idea - food festival. Food festival. With this in mind, my friend Susan and I bought 5-day passes. Yes, five days of food. Am I making myself clear as to how amazing this is? We arrived in Torino late Thursday morning, and got to the festival in early afternoon. Neither of us knew what to expect exactly, and neither of us could have anticipated the glorious journey on which we were about to embark... haha, seriously though - we walked in the building (a gigantic convention center - the same one which hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics) and our mouths dropped. There was just so much food. Food everywhere. Food in piles, food hanging from the ceiling, hundreds and hundreds (maybe even thousands of stalls) offering samples of cheese, meat, fish, bread, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, cookies, crackers, gelato, honey, cake, chocolate (soooo much chocolate), fruit and vegetables.... literally, every food I could think of.
(This is a photo of one of the "piles" I mentioned, a delicious chicken with gravy and stuffing. Basically everyone just crowds around and stabs at it with toothpicks.)

There was one huge pavilion dedicated to international foods, another dedicated to the various regions of Italy and two more which we couldn't exactly figure out but it seemed to be something along the lines of "all the best foods you've ever tried ever." Hopefully this photo will give you some idea of how massive this place was - this is about one third of one pavilion. No mirrors, no tricks, it really is as big as it looks. Also, there was a section devoted to wine... as we entered, we were given a wine glass, which came in a pouch that we carried around our necks. The idea is to be able to enjoy the wine without ever having to stop eating.

This place was heaven, I'm telling you.

I'd make a list of everything I ate but that would just be gross. Keep in mind that I walked into this place with the full intention of trying everything. I figure, this is some of the best food in the world. If I can't trust the Slow Foodies, I can't trust anyone. So I ate things that I never really planning on eating, including raw beef sausage, beer cheese, honey wine, chicken fat (although they tricked me by calling it shmaltz), and rabbit. That's right folks, I ate bunny.

I decided to weigh myself before and after this weekend and discovered that I'd gained 3 kilos. I told myself that this was perfectly acceptable because there are 2.2 kilos in a pound, so I'd only gained like a pound and a half. Of course, deep down I knew that there are actually 2.2 pounds in a kilo....

Aside from having the most wonderful eating experience of my life, I really enjoyed Torino for other reasons as well. The city is beautiful, with tons of palaces, portici, parks and a river running through the city. It has really interesting history, mostly because of a king (Re Umberto, I think) who had the entire city designed for his convenience. For example, the city is lined with portici so that he could walk around in the rain without an umbrella. There is a beautiful palace which he had built for the queen, just so he didn't have to live with her. The church is attached to the king's palace just so he didn't have to leave home for mass. I think I'd built a food festival attached to my house!!

There was also a really amazing museum of cinema and a beautiful outdoor photography exhibit (the theme was Siddhartha the Buddha). I hope I get the chance to go back to Torino, though... I've heard it's really beautiful in the winter and there's still a lot that I haven't seen. Our trip to Torino was also my very first time couch-surfing, which if you don't know, is a world-wide collective of people who are willing to provide free beds for weary travelers. It's a really amazing way to meet people from all over the world, and it's also just a really nice thing to do.

For the first two nights of the festival, we stayed with an Italian couple - Davide and Laura. Not only did they welcome us into their home, but they also gave us slippers.

Even more importantly, they fed us more than I considered reasonable. On Friday night we returned exhausted and full from the Salone to discover that Davide and Laura were throwing a dinner party in our honor. There were 8 of us altogether, and enough food to feed 20. There were two types of antipasti, a pizza, two types of pasta, a "savory cake" (spinach and pancetta quiche), a regular cake with ice cream, and wine wine wine. All of this, after 6 hours of non-stop eating at the Salone.

Then, to top things off, they took on a night-time walking tour of Torino and then to an amazing pseudo-disco club where we danced all night. I've never been so full, so happy or so ill.

Here's a photo of all of us: Davide, Laura, Bagigia (their adorable kitty), Susan and me! I'll never forget them, and hopefully I'll have the chance to offer them my couch when I get back to the United States!Our second hosts were a Brazilian couple, Carem and Joao. They were also amazing, and actually accompanied us to the Salone on our last day in Torino. Of course, this was not until after they'd fed us an enormous breakfast and taken us to their friend's house for lunch where he'd prepared an enormous traditional Brazilian lunch of feijoada which is basically lots of beans and meat over rice - so good. SO good.

My weekend was incredible! I'm so glad that I got to meet Davide, Laura, Carem and Joao (and of course, Bagigia). I think I'll try couch-surfing every time I travel from now on - it's really an incredible concept.

One more thing before I head off to class - guess who popped in to say hello from Davide and Laura's fridge:

Un Gran Presidente?!

This past weekend, I went Parma to visit my friend Nicola and to attend an art exhibition featuring the famous Renaissance painter Antonio Allegri (better known as Correggio). The show was divided into four separate exhibits scattered all over the city. I think the idea was to go in a certain order, which I didn't - however I'll write about them in the order in which I was supposed to see them. (It's better this way, trust me.)

The first was a gallery featuring many of Correggio's paintings, as well as many works by artists who inspired him. For example, I saw a drawing by Da Vinci which has always been one of my favorites. I think that it's normally referred to in English as "Head of a Woman" or "Woman's head" or something, but in Italian, it's called La Scapigliata which means "uncombed woman." I like the Italian title more!It's really interesting to see the influence of this drawing on some of Correggio's paintings, especially those of the Virgin Mary:The second exhibit was in a convent, where I saw the "Camera di San Paolo." Correggio painted the entire room with a fresco of tiny cherubs. It used to be the private dining room of the mother-superior of the convent. I can't imagine having a room like that all to myself... I'd probably be too distracted to eat anything!Finally, the third and fourth exhibits were by far the most incredible. Correggio frescoed the domes (le cupole) of two churches in the city of Parma - the Cathedral of Parma, and the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista. The dome in the cathedral is painted with a fresco of the Assumption of Mary...
...and the dome in the church of San Giovanni is painted with a fresco of St. John at Patmos.
Now, let me tell you - I've seen a whole lot of frescoed domes in my day. (Ha!) This was a little different, though. For this exhibition, there were staircases set up which allowed us to actually climb up inside the domes and walk around, just inches from the painting itself. Completely surrounded by the painting, I could see each brush stroke, each tiny little detail and each toe of each apostle. There is so much detail that can't be seen from the ground. I was stunned - it was so beautiful. Photos were strictly forbidden, but I will never forget it.

If any of you get the chance to climb into a frescoed dome any time soon, I highly recommend it.

The rest of my free time lately has been taken over by studying, although I did take a break on Saturday night to enjoy a massive Italian dinner: American style with two friends from my program. What does "american style" mean, you ask? Garlic bread, my friends - Garlic bread, pasta from a box and sauce from a jar. It was magnificent, unless you ask my roommates, in which case it was absolutely repulsive. (That's why I don't ask them anything...) Did you know garlic bread doesn't exist here? Neither did I, which is why I agreed to study here for a year....

One last treat before I go to bed... Nicola decided to make a video while we were eating lunch and this is by far the best clip. In the beginning of the clip, he says "Era un gran presidente, George W. Bush." (George W. Bush was a great president.) Nicola is a nice guy and all, but we don't exactly see eye to eye when it comes to American politics... as you can probably see by my reaction. Anyway, this clip made me laugh a lot and hopefully it'll make you laugh, too!



I love and miss you all.... I look forward to hearing wonderful news from home. (In other words: e-mail me, you punks!)

My Days

Oh, what days they've been.

Let's start with Sunday. I woke up early and went to Padova with a group of friends. I was the only American, the rest were Portuguese, Spanish and Chilean. We tried to speak mainly in Italian but sometimes it was easier to speak in English. I'm constantly amazed at how many English-speaking people I've met - especially young people - from all over the world! It's a shame that it's not the same when my Portuguese friends go to the United States. Odds are they won't meet many Americans who speak Portuguese...

I have, however, officially added Portuguese to my list of languages to learn. It's so beautiful, and the more I hear it spoken, the more I want to learn it. Hopefully Marta will teach me something!

Anyway, I spent all day in Padova with my worldly group of friends. It's a really beautiful city, very quiet and peaceful. In a lot of ways, it's similar to Nice (which makes sense because Nice was an Italian city for about 500 years). The architecture is very similar, as is the layout of the city. There are wide, open piazzas filled with flower and fruit merchants, and the narrow streets are lined with beautiful pastel-colored buildings. There was no beach in Padova (like the beautiful pebble beach in Nice, where I think I could have stayed forever) but there were small canals running through the city.When I chose to study in Italy for a year, I had to choose between Bologna and Padova. I didn't know much about either city, so I chose Bologna based solely on its central location and larger student population. While visiting Padova, though, I realized how completely different my experience would have been if I'd decided to study there instead of here in Bologna.

I'm not saying that I made the wrong choice or that I wish I'd chosen Padova. I don't, at all. In fact, it's impossible to say that I'd have a better experience in either city, because they're so different. Literally everything that could be different is different. I could see myself living in Padova just as easily as I see myself living here, but for entirely different reasons. Luckily, my lovely and wonderful friend Heather ("Etter") will be studying in Padova next spring so I can spend as much time there as I want... assuming she doesn't get sick of me.This was my favorite place in Padova, a giant circular park with a view of the basilica. It's hard to tell in the photos, but the weather was very strange while we were there. There was a very thin layer of clouds but it was still very bright outside. This created a kind of surreal glow which just added to the charm of this already-beautiful city. I'm really glad that I had the chance to spend a day there!

Yesterday, I had 6 hours of class and returned home exhausted - just in time to watch "Taxi Driver" with my housemates. I've wanted to see that movie for years, and just never got around to it until last night. It was definitely a strange movie, made even stranger by the fact that it was dubbed in Italian. I was so confused. In fact, I'm still confused! There was relatively little dialogue in the film, which makes me think that those few lines were pretty important. I might watch it again in English but I'm honestly not sure if would be any easier to understand! :)

I'm not a big fan of dubbed films, and not just because they're more difficult for me to understand. I just feel like an actor's voice is so important - the tiny subtleties in the way an actor delivers his lines is part of what distinguishes a good actor from a terrible one. To me, taking away the actor's voice is taking away an incredibly important part of his or her performance! I just don't think it's fair to watch a De Niro movie without De Niro's voice... .and what about Sean Connery?! I can't imagine watching a Sean Connery movie without that incredibly awesome accent. It just seems... wrong. Oddly enough, the entire population of Italy disagrees with me. All of the movies here are dubbed, as well as television shows. I guess I'll just have to get used to it! (Amusing side note: I've heard that Keanu Reeves is actually considered a great actor here, probably due to the performance of the Italian voice-actor!!)

Well, there is more I could write about but I had 8.5 hours of class today... so I think I'll call it a night. I love and miss you all, very much. Write me, tell me things about home!

The 406-word sentence

I thought it would be neat to share a little bit of my reading with my family and friends, so everyone could see what I'm learning about in Italy!!

The following sentence/passage/deathtrap, written in Italian of course, took me about an hour to decipher. (By "decipher", I mean look up all the words I didn't recognize.) After having finished this long and tedious process, I realized I still had no idea what the sentence/passage/deathtrap meant, so I decided to type it into "www.freetranslation.com" and see what would happen. Frankly, I'm surprised my computer didn't explode. Everyone, meet my nemesis:

Also in its to say itself "communist" (and in the route that for designation of its party, he completed in this damp dawn like a sponge) it not it is distinguished outcome where arrived a duty handed down of generation in generation (between the walls of those ecclesiastical buildings Amerigo is seen - a little one ironically and a little one on the serious one - in the part of a last anonymous heir of the eighteenth-century razionalismo - I stay of that inheritance ever known to make to yield - in the town that held Giannone in stumps) and outcome where the outlet in another story, old just of a century but already bristly of you obstruct and steps obliged, the advance of the socialist proletariat (then was across them "contradictions it of the bourgeoisie" or "the autocoscienza of the class in crisis" that the struggle of class had arrived to move also of about forty years only - embodiment of that struggle of class, since the communism had become international power and the revolution is made discipline, preparation to direct, negotiation from power to power also where it is not had the power (therefore also Amerigo this game of whom a lot regulates seemed fixed and inscutable and dark but a lot it is had the sense of to participate to establish them), or, communism, was a touch of reserve on the general matters, that pushed Amerigo to choose the most limited tasks of party and modest how recognizing in you are the most surely useful, and also in these going always gotten ready to the worst, wanting to keep itself serene simply in its (other generic limit) pessimism (in part hereditary also that, the plaintive air of family that contradict the Italians of the minority it wins it is noticed to have loser), but always in line subordinated to an as much optimism and stronger, the optimism without which would not have been communist (then was necessary to say, first: a hereditary optimism, of the minority italians that believes to have won every time that loses; that is to say the optimism and the pessimism were, if not the same thing, the two faces of the same leaf of artichoke), and, in the Italian, the sense of the relevant one, the faculty of adaptation and awaited (that is to say the age-old enemy of that minority: and then all the cards returned to confuse itself because who leaves in war against the skepticism cannot resign lose itself, otherwise it is identified with the its enemy), and above to all have understood it finally what did not want us then a lot understand: that this is alone an angle they decide themselves, we do not say elsewhere because elsewhere it is everywhere, but on a more immense staircase (and also in this there they were reasons of pessimism and reasons of optimism, but the first came to the most spontaneous mind).

I'm sure you didn't actually read all of that (can't even read one sentence, you slackers!), but if you had, you'd know that it doesn't make any sense and that my brain is about to self-combust. I'm happy to say that I've managed to read 8 pages of this stuff today... but I'm not so happy to say that it took me over 3 hours and 2 shots of espresso to do so.

My dear, wonderful, much-too-helpful friend Ryan was kind enough to inform me that at this rate, it will only take me 20 full days (reading 24 hours each day, of course) to read the 1000 pages of required text for my literature class. Since there are about 80 days in the semester, this leaves me 60 days of freedom.

Luckily I think Calvino will be the heaviest of the reading, and this book is only 80 pages long which means it should only take me about 30 hours to read. In other words, I love you all but I'm wasting precious reading-time by writing this. Goodbye :)

Non si fa?

This weekend, Marta and I decided to cook dinner for several of our friends. We're not exactly culinary experts, but we decided on something that sounded pretty dang good to us - our own invention: Pasta Caprese!! This consists (or more accurately, would have consisted) of pasta with pesto, tomatoes, and mozzarella. We ran into a snag when our three Italian roommates informed us that this is just not acceptable. Non si fa were their exact words, the rough translation of which is "one doesn't do that."

These are three words that I've grown quite accustomed to hearing, actually. For example, I learned that "one does not" order a panino with a cappuccino. Non si fa. I asked my roommates to further explain, because I happen to like drinking a cappuccino with my panino. They explained that "one does not" mix breakfast items (cappuccino) with lunch items (panino).

Well, "one" may not not mix meals, but Kalen certainly does. Haven't Italians ever heard of brunch? Or, even better, brinner?! (I'm going to wait awhile before suggesting that we have weekly pancake dinners...)

Anyway, back to our could-have-been magnificent Pasta Caprese. Andrea, Pierluca and Giada insisted that we at least leave out the mozzarella. Tomatoes were acceptable as long as we promised to sauté them, not just toss in diced tomatoes at the end... which is what we were planning to do - once again, non si fa. So, the recipe was agreed upon - but we got off to a disastrous start when we accidentally bought two different types of pasta. One required a cooking time of 11 minutes, and the other required a cooking time of 12 minutes! I thought Andrea was going to have a heart-attack, especially when I explained to him my normal U.S. pasta recipe:

1. Buy pasta
2. Buy sauce
3. Cook pasta for somewhere between 10-20 minutes
(yeah, that one really got him...)
4. Combine pasta and sauce
5. Enjoy, usually with a glass of milk, sometimes directly from the pan. Haha!

After much ado about everything, and much help from our roommates, our pasta was finally complete. If you ask me, it was perfect. If you ask Andrea, Pierluca or Giada... you know what, just don't ask them! :) Marta and I are extremely proud of our very first Italian culinary masterpiece!

Oh, speaking of firsts: on Monday, I attended my first courses at the University of Bologna!

Beginning Latin Grammer: first, I went to the wrong building and waited in an empty hall for... well, probably longer than most people would have. Then I went to the right building but the wrong hall. Then I went to the right hall in the right building and after a very confusing hour, realized that Beginning Latin Grammer is not, in fact, a beginning course in Latin as I had been led to believe. It is actually a beginning course in literature and translation. This obviously requires some knowledge of the latin language, of which I have none. Note to self: Drop latin class.

Contemporary Italian Literature: right building, right hall! Yesssss! I was so excited about this that I wasn't even phased by the fact that I'm expected to read over 1000 pages of Contemporary Italian Literature by December. Okay, I was a little phased. In fact, I was terrified and am still terrified and would prefer not to talk about it any more. Note to self: learn speed-reading.

In all honesty, I'm excited about the class. The theme is "confines of humanity" which seems interesting, the professor seems really passionate and the books are long. I mean, the books are fascinating.

History of Photography: Finally, a class which doesn't scare the crap out of me. The professor is engaging and seems to know just about everything there is to know about photography. He's really easy to understand. We have two books, one about photography in the 1800's and one about photography in the 1900's. They seem a little dense but I think that I'll be alright if I study a lot and get on Professor Marra's good side. Note to self: bake cookies for prof.

Since I'm only taking two courses right now, I decided to take a photography course at a nearby community center. It's a 36-week long course, during which I'll have unlimited access to two different darkrooms and also to a professional studio equipped with lighting, backdrops, etc. This is incredible, because it can cost hundreds of dollars per day to use a studio like that and I'll have unlimited access to it for the entire time I'm here.

Well, that's about it for now but I want to leave you with one more thing!

An American photographer living here in Bologna organized a photo shoot today in Piazza Maggiore, for all the people who want to show their international support for Barack Obama. Here we are, in all our glory:
Can you find me? Hint: I am (unintentionally) doing the "rock on" symbol... not sure how that happened. Ah well... rock on, Obama!

:)

La Nostra Prima Festa!

Our first house party was a huge success... and I mean really huge. I couldn't believe how many people were crammed into our apartment. I was a little terrified when everyone started showing up... but after a little bit of time and a little bit of wine I loosened up and was able to mingle pretty successfully. It was quite the challenge, mingling in Italian (especially because mingling has always been difficult for me, even in English)! I met a lot of really cool people, though, and we all had an amazing time. No one is entirely sure how many people came last night, but Pierluca estimates around 100! There were about 60 in the apartment at any given time, but people were coming and going all night between 8:00PM and 3:00AM so it's pretty hard to say.


(I was the only one who realized this photo was being taken...)

Mmm, I forgot to mention the best part of our party - the food. Sadly, I don't have a photo but Pierluca and Giada made tons of food - several different kinds of pasta, bruschetta, pastry things filled with prosciutto, all kinds of snacks... and I made guacamole which was actually a big hit. I was amazed at how many people had never tried guacamole! I'm honestly not sure how they've lived this long without it.

Perhaps the best part of the night (other than the food of course) - we managed to take our very first family photo!
From left to right: Pierluca, me, Giada, Marta and Andrea. We took three of these and Andrea managed to look goofy in all three, haha!

We're a pretty mellow bunch so I'm not sure how many more giant parties we'll have... but this was a great opportunity to meet people. I'm making a lot of friends here, which makes me feel more and more at home.

Speaking of which, I met my penpal Nicola a few days ago! He studies at the University of Emilia-Romagna, not too far from here. We've been writing to each other for about a year so it was interesting meeting him in person. There's only so much you can learn about a person through e-mails, after all. He's very nice, though, and I'm glad I had the chance to meet him.

I know this feeling will go away as I get to know people a little better, but sometimes I feel like I'm surrounded by strangers here... it was really nice spending time with someone who knows me a little better.
Even though I'm starting to make friends here, I still miss everyone at home a lot. Sometimes it's hard for me to really be here, to let myself sink in... but I think I'm getting there. It'll just take time, and patience. I'm starting from scratch, you know? I came here with just me, just the basics, and now comes the tricky part - building the rest. I get to build an entire life for myself here, la mia vita italiana. Let's hope I don't screw it up too much! :)